CEIV Pharma certification for the ground and air cargo services provider in the Netherlands will increase its contribution to the Pharma Gateway Amsterdam – a programme established in 2016 to position Schiphol as a key European pharma hub.

The company said in a statement: "Swissport Netherlands is developing a dedicated product line for the handling of life science & healthcare shipments. With the recent acquisition of Terminal 9, the scope for this product line was broadened and today, all of Swissport’s operational activities in the Netherlands (both Terminal 9 and 11) are successfully awarded by the IATA CEIV certification."

Jeroen Giling, director cargo at Swissport Netherlands, said: “The certificate is a validation of the hard work that our team put in the pharma product. But that is not where we stop.

"In co-operation with our valued customers, we believe that the pharma product is a product line with continuous improvement cycles. This means that we will keep investing in training our staff, maintaining the best controlled pharma facilities and further develop procedures to ensure a secure and high quality pharma chain.”

Swissport International handles 4.3m tonnes of cargo a year on behalf of some 835 client-companies in the aviation sector.

A number of companies have received CEIV Pharma certification in recent weeks, including Amerijet, Delta and CEVA.